What image comes to your mind when you think of a Japanese garden? Perhaps Zen gardens, with their manicured plants, stones, and mosses… Well, Beniya Mukayu’s garden offers you a totally different experience:

One of the hotel’s distinctive features is its garden, located in the center of the site, which looks like a large thicket of assorted hardwoods. It bears no resemblance to any of the elaborate, artistic gardens found in the temples of Kyoto. Here, maples, pines, camellias, Chinese quinces, and other trees grow freely and thrive. Flourishing natural formations sometimes permeate nature that’s been left relatively untouched. In the fresh green season, new maple leaves inundate the garden. The windows of every guest room are opened wide onto the garden. And so the flood of young leaves, transformed into the current of dappled light, spills into each room.

Kenya Hara, DESIGNING DESIGN.

In Japan, April is a month associated with new beginnings. Indeed, the arrival of the spring seems to bring new life to every corner… in this season; strolling Beniya Mukayu’s garden is truly pleasant. Nonetheless, it offers a spectacle worthy of being admired all year round.

Unique to Beniya Mukayu, every room features two booklets illustrating the nature around the property. The first one is divided into four sections, each illustrating the flowers that bloom in the four main seasons. The second, Botany of Mukayu, is a comprehensive catalogue of the most important trees and mosses that populate the garden.

The imposing 300 years old sacred red pine is best admired from the Horin restaurant, cast against the sky just like the pine tree of the Noh stage.

The relatively younger mountain sakura and Chinese quince tree, both around 100 years old, take a turn in delighting the guests. At the end of March, the Sakura tree offers a breathtaking spectacle from the Wakamurasaki suite; in autumn, guests can find big, yellow quinces inside the nest-like artwork by Masako Maki in the library, and the fruits are available to those who wish to make some quince-flavored liquor at home.

Mosses, cherished by the Japanese since ancient times, are the smallest and yet most fascinating plants in the garden. Beniya Mukayu’s knowledgeable staff has listed more than 20 varieties, and a Moss Map is available to the guests.

Guests staying for two nights or more can engage in some unique experiences which will bring them even closer to nature:

• Flower Appreciation and Arrangement — Mukayu’s Aesthetics and Zen
• Moss Terrarium Making Experience — Your Jar-sized Garden
• Ozuchi Mountain Hiking — Back to Nature

The experience of being in harmony with nature can be life-changing, revealing where one “fits in.” Staying at Beniya Mukayu can be a chance to look at nature for personal meaning too…

For more information on Beniya Mukayu, please visit https://mukayu.com/english/ or email beniya@mukayu.com.